Brazilian man has amassed “several million” vinyl records

The New York Times Magazine has ran a profile of Zero Freitas, a 62-year-old businessman from Brazil who owns a São Paulo bus line and has amassed a colossal record collection. Freitas’ collection is estimated to be somewhere around three million LPs and 45s, with many of them being “bargain-bin rejects that had been thoroughly forgotten.” He’s grown his collection by making purchases from aging music execs, critics and record-store owners.

Freitas’ collection has grown to the point that it has to be stored in a 25,000-square-foot warehouse, with a dozen college interns cataloging it at a rate of 500 per day (a rate that is surpassed by the new records he adds daily).

“Between June and November of last year, more than a dozen 40-foot-long shipping containers arrived, each holding more than 100,000 newly purchased records. Though the warehouse was originally the home of his second business — a company that provides sound and lighting systems for rock concerts and other big events — these days the sound boards and light booms are far outnumbered by the vinyl.”